The Noble Order of the Knights of Labour was founded in
the United States in 1869 as a secret fraternal society. Its
aim was to unite all classes of labour, regardless of skill,
sex, colour, or creed, for a programme of social reforms. The
order reached the peak of its influence in 1886. In later
years its membership was drawn increasingly from rural areas
while single tax and land nationalisation theories
predominated in its propaganda. The knights were already in
decline in the United States when they extended their
influence to New Zealand. The first contacts were made by
correspondence with an organisation of Christchurch
unemployed, the Canterbury Labour Union. In December 1887
this body changed its name to “The New Zealand Knights of
Labour”. An Auckland assembly was formed in June 1889, but
real progress dated from the following year when an organiser
from the United States toured New Zealand and formed
assemblies which he affiliated to the parent body in
Philadelphia.

In the South Island the knights were confined mainly to
Christchurch, Dunedin, and the West Coast. Their strongholds
were in the North Island and particularly in the Wellington
Province where virtually every township had an assembly in
the early nineties. Two district assemblies functioned at
Auckland and Wellington until 1895, when the whole of New
Zealand was joined together as a national assembly under a
national master workman. Peak membership of the knights in
New Zealand has been estimated as 5,000 in some 50
assemblies, but even higher figures have been claimed.

In New Zealand, as elsewhere, the knights broke away from
narrow craft unionism and promoted the “new unionism” by
helping to organise unskilled and semiskilled trades. Their
membership was not confined to manual workers, but included
clerks, shopkeepers, small businessmen, farmers, and
land-hungry settlers. They were one of the first political
organisations to admit women not only to membership but also
to leading positions. In their propaganda the knights were
greatly influenced by the single tax theories of Henry
George. Many of the reforms which they put forward were
adopted by the Liberal Government. They strongly supported
the principles of cooperation and arbitration and their
educational work prepared the ground for the acceptance of
the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. They paid
much attention to the political education of their members
who were required to read and discuss papers at the regular
assembly meetings.

The knights' influence was strongest in the early nineties
when they claimed the allegiance of 14 members of Parliament.
They were the first national political organisation in New
Zealand and, according to one writer, they “taught the
progressive party how to organise”. Their influence declined
under the Seddon administration when many knights, who had
taken up land in special settlements, forsook their earlier
radicalism. The last meeting of the national assembly took
place in 1897. A year later the knights had ceased to exist
in New Zealand.

How to cite this page: 'KNIGHTS OF LABOUR', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966.Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New ZealandURL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/political-parties/page-7 (accessed 26 May 2019)